The Gym
by GoNeRoGuE98
Summary: One-shot. Set between Frostbite and Shadow Kiss. It's morning practice with Dimitri, and as usual, Rose is determined to break the control Dimitri always says he possesses. She wants him to break.


The alarm clock went off, awakening me from my sleep and I moaned, not at all ready to get up. It had already been a few months since we'd returned to the academy, and you would think that I would finally be used to waking up at five to start training with Dimitri, but no. It was still hell dragging my butt out of bed.

But knowing that I'd see Dimitri did brighten my day a little bit, so I turned the alarm off and pushed my covers away.

_My hair looked horrible. _

That was the first thing I thought as the mirror atop my dresser allowed me to see that rat's nest that had taken residence atop my head. My normally silky hair was standing up in odd directions, frizzy waves cascading down my back. But it was already 5:23 and I needed to be at the gym by 5:30 … but I'm Rose Hathaway, and when am I ever on time?

So when I walked into the gym at 5:37, Dimitri slowly looked up from his western novel, exasperation taken place over his features, "Rose, you're seven minutes late."

"I know Comrade, but my hair was really tangled and messy so I had to fix it. And besides when am I ever early?" I smirked at him, immediately bending down to start doing my stretches. I didn't miss Dimitri's eyes lifting to my hair, appraising the neat bun that I had put it into.

He rolled his eyes, "You'll be running laps today."

I scoffed, muttering under my breath, "Why am I not surprised?"

"What was that?" He asked, his deep voice booming from across the gym, his eyebrow raised in a challenge.

"Nothing Comrade!" I said immediately, flashing him a smirk. Dimitri stared at me, eyes narrowed, before telling me to go run faint traces of amusement lighting his normally stoic eyes. With a sigh and a groan, I reluctantly headed out to the track and broke into a steady jog. I was dead set on shaving off at least a minute from my best three mile run which would knock my time down to 16:19 if I met my goal.

By mile three I was huffing, lungs sore and a burning ache had set into my legs halfway through mile two. Sweat was trickling down my temples, some beads rolling to my eyes. I glanced at my wrist watch timer, seeing I had two minutes to beat my record, and with a slight screech I pushed myself harder.

It wasn't till I was twenty seconds away from meeting my goal that I realize Dimitri was leaning against a pillar by the gym entrance, pride curving the small smile on his lips. Seeing that smile, it gave me the strength to run harder for the following seconds till my foot passed over the starting point, and I dropped onto the ground, the wind being knocked out of me as I tried to suck in oxygen.

Dimitri walked to me slowly, smiling with pride as he looked down at me, "Good job Rose. 16:07."

I smiled, having even beaten my goal time and held my hand up for a high five, Dimitri rolled his eyes at me, and turned to walk away, "Aw, come on Dimitri. You're gonna leave me hanging like that?"

Dimitri gave me that half smile, eyes sparkling mischievously, "Come on into the gym. We'll spar before you have to leave."

That created a swell of excitement to burst through me, and I immediately leapt up; sore muscles or not, I would never pass up the chance to spar with Dimitri. Being close to him like that, it was the only time he didn't hold back. Given, I received bruises from majority of his blows, but the heat created whenever our skin touched was worth all the soreness.

"You're going down, Comrade," I said, quickly catching up to him, a challenging gleam no doubt shining in my eyes. Dimitri glanced at me, the end of his lips twitching.

"Is that so?" He questioned, lips curling ever so slightly.

"Yes," I said smugly.

"We'll see, Rose. We'll see."

Soon enough we were crouched in defensive and offensive crouches, both of our eyes taking the other in, testing each other and appraising the other, trying to determine what we would do. The problem with us though, was that we knew each other too well. Over the months of training together, five days a week, we had become accustomed to the other's favored moves, and it was becoming more difficult to win.

But it also made it more challenging, and we both loved that.

Dimitri leapt forward, aiming a blow for my shoulder, but I expertly blocked it, kicking out towards his knees. He of course avoided that, and I would've been disappointed if he hadn't. We were just warming up.

It must have been ten minutes before we started to land sufficient blows, sweat matting our hair to our skin. Dimitri's dark eyes were blazing with pride, and bloodlust. No matter his Zen lessons and control, I knew Dimitri loved to give in at certain moments. He'd given that away before the Christmas holiday trip. That day in the gym when I'd kissed him, and he'd returned the kiss. It burned through my memory just then, and that distraction was all Dimitri needed to kick my legs from under me, taking me to the mat.

I fought hard, aiming punches to his ribcage, my knees cracking up towards his thighs before he got a solid hold on me. His teeth were gritted as he fought to pin me down, but I wasn't distracted anymore. I was more aware; I could not let him win. It had been several practices since my last triumph, and I was sick of it.

Biting my lip, I curved my leg around his waist watching his eyes widen as our pelvises pushed together, before I completed the move and landed on top of him in a straddling position on top of his stomach, hands digging into his forearms.

But the fight it seemed, had left Dimitri because he lay beneath me panting heavily as he stared almost dazedly up at me.

I was panting as well, hands releasing his arms to slide to the mat on either side of his head, my hair had completely abandoned the bun I'd secured it into this morning, it hung around us as a curtain, shielding us from the outside world. It was just him and me, barely half a foot of space between our flushed faces.

Dimitri's dark eyes held indecipherable emotions, and in that moment I would have given anything to know what he was thinking. My arms were shaking with the strain to hold myself up when all I wanted to do was lie in his embrace, and feel him against me, holding me … protecting me.

"Roza…" He murmured, the Russian version of my name slipping from his lips. He only let it out whenever he was feeling affectionate towards me, and that was all the push I needed to close the gap between us and press our lips together in a frenzied kiss.

My heart pounded harder as soon as our lips met, sinking onto my forearms as my fingers delved into his brown hair, mere shades lighter than my own. The heat emitting from his torso was almost unbearable, as I was already hot as it was. But that only seemed to further fuel the love, and desire I felt for Dimitri in that moment.

"Roza," he groaned, his long fingers trailing the side of my body before he flipped us over, wedging one of his knees between my thighs as his hands roamed over my stomach, and past my ribs where they tangled into my hair. I moaned, my head falling back onto the mat as he trailed hot, open mouthed kisses along the column of my neck.

"Dimitri," I moaned, legs encircling his waist, fingers digging into his back and raking down. His head shot up, a fire burning in the brown orbs, passion undeniable in the dark depths. I couldn't hold his gaze; it was too intense to stare at almost like looking into the sun. His lips wondered, competing with his graceful fingers that were driving me higher up to heaven. My own hands were now beneath his shirt, and I wanted to shove it off. But I was consciously still aware of the fact that we were in the gym. Anybody could walk in on us right then.

Dimitri's morals must've returned because he pulled back at the same time I realized how dangerous this was. He kneeled on his knees, my legs still wrapped around him and he rolled his lips into his mouth, closing his eyes as he got control over himself.

I hated it. I hated his guardian mask, as he shuttered it down, taking away all the passionate emotions he possessed and wielded … for me. I bit my own lip, watching sadly as he slowly untwined my legs from him, and stood up.

He looked at me, no emotion visible past the blank mask, before he held out his hand. I grabbed it, sighing as he effortlessly pulled me up, "Go get ready for classes."

He walked away, not looking back, and déjà vu rolled through me. How many times had I been in this same position, with Dimitri walking away without a glance back? Too many to count, that was for sure.

With a sigh, I turned and walked out the opposite door, back towards the novice dorms. My blood still sung beneath the surface, still pumping from our session. But not just from the sparring. Shaking away the thoughts, I concentrated on Lissa then. She was waking up, and preparing to meet me at the cafeteria. Pushing aside thoughts of my mentor, I readied to see my best friend.


End file.
